Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves.

In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the third post of the series, Chloe Rosser talks about her image 'Function 5, 4'. Chloe is a photographic artist based in London represented by L A Noble Gallery who has just released her new book Form & Function, available at Stay Free Publishing.

Chloe says: "This image is from my Form & Function series. In this work I hide all the identifying features of the figures - the heads, hair and hands. When seeing a body like this, you can't make the usual assumptions or judgements about a person that you normally would. Instead, you're able to focus on the details of the structure of the figure.

For these works, I try to use natural light whenever I can. I was usually shooting in people's homes, which means utilising window light as much as possible. This image doesn't get shown very much when the project is featured or exhibited, but it's actually one of my favourites. That's because of the quality of the light and how it falls beautifully over their shoulders, spines and muscles. They look so statuesque to me.

The other aspect I love about this image is the angle at which one of the figure's leg rests. It looks so strange, almost amputated. It rests there heavily and relaxed, but in a position which looks so awkward. Almost painful, but so calm.

The sole of that figure's foot is dirty from the floor. I see that as a little pop of humanity. We're looking at this pile of body parts, but right there is evidence of the human act of walking. For the same reason, I leave all the marks on the floors and walls - because it's proof the space is lived in.

I shot this image on a Canon 5D Mark III with a Canon EF 24-105 mm lens using natural light. The image is featured in my new book, Form & Function"

Thank you so much, Chloe, for sharing with me such beautiful image from your breathtaking work! You can see more of Chloe's amazing work on www.chloerosser.co.uk.

If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process, we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves. In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the second post of the series, I spoke with Ivan Weiss, a London-based headshot and portraits photographer with a particular focus on the performing arts. Ivan walks us through the challenges he encountered while shooting this beautiful portrait.

Ivan says: "I was asked to do some promo images for a barbershop that's just opened up in East London. The shop is inside a shipping container in Containerville E2. So I knew I'd be dealing with very limited space, but it also gave me a cue to play on the long, narrow shape in my composition. Luckily I've been working a lot with wider focal lengths recently and I felt confident this would work. I took my 24-70mm just in case I was forced to change plans.

I had to work quickly as I only had 10 minutes with Davide in between clients. I had taken a compact version of my current favourite studio light set up. I rigged my key light as high as the ceiling would allow (i.e not very) and gaffer-taped a black cloth to the wall opposite to provide negative fill and prevent any bounce back. I was ready to roll as soon as he was. I took a few frames to get my levels right and immediately began regretting my decision not to bring a third light with me. The background was just too dark. Not bad for a moody portrait, but I needed something a bit lighter for this commercial image. Luckily, I was on a tripod. So I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/10 second and let the natural ambient light soak in to light my background.

I’ve chosen to share this image because it represents for me a fusion of my studio style with the environmental portraiture work that I’d like to be doing more of.”

For this shot, Ivan used:

Body: Canon 5DsR

Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm ƒ/2.8L II @35mm

Settings: ƒ/9, 1/10, ISO100

Key light: Godox AD200 in a 70cm SMDV Dodeca Speedbox pushed as far as possible into the corner of the ceiling and wall on camera right.

Fill light: Godox AD200 in a RayFlash ringflash adapter on camera.

Thank you so much, Ivan, for kindly taking part in my series and for showing us your amazing work! You can see more of Ivan's photography on http://www.ivanweiss.london.

If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take. In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves. In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.

For the first post of the series, Benjamin Youd talks about his image 'The Writer'. Ben is a London-based photographer who loves documenting natural emotions and interactions between people in a quiet and non-obtrusive way.

Ben says: "This image was taken as a part of a commission that I was sent on for housing charity, Shelter. I've called the image 'The Writer', as that symbolises a lot about the subject that I photographed.

"The initial brief was to travel to Bristol to meet with a lady who in her older years, had decided to gift the charity as a part of her Will. I was sent to take a few portraits to accompany a write up about the gift that she was giving them. When I met the lady, and we talked for an hour or so about her life, I realised that her story was worth so much more than a quick portrait or two. So, I ended up spending the entire day with her, talking in her apartment and walking through the grounds of the retirement village that she now lived in.

"She told me how much she loved to be involved with her community, and how despite living on her own, she kept herself busy with a variety of activities, such as drawing, writing, holding workshops, yoga, meditation, and playing the piano – to name just a few. I found her attitude, and approach to life amazingly inspiring. So, as we talked the hours away, I documented some of the activities that she described to me with such enthusiasm.

"This particular image depicts her love of writing and story-telling. Something she's liked since she was a lot younger, and now passes on through her own experience, as she engages young people in writing classes and workshops.

"My intention with this shoot was to make it as natural as possible, so although I did bring along a set of consistent lights, I didn't end up using them. They would only ever have been used in this occasion to brighten up the ambient light, but fortunately her living room had a huge set of west facing windows, which let in some really beautiful light. The fall off of the light was pretty dramatic as you went further into the room, but this allowed for a more dramatic approach, using deeper shadows to define features.

"I was the only one on this shoot, which is often the nature of working with charities. To some extent, working in this way is quite freeing, as you really get to connect with your subject, and pay attention to the setting and light. It also limits the amount of kit you can take with you, so you're often looking for the best available light.

"I think at the time, I was using a Canon 5D MKII, and this would have been shot with a 24–70mm f2.8 lens, at around 35mm to get the wider angle. Metering for the light hitting the subjects face from the window enabled me to get more of a dramatic and high contrast image."

Thank you so much, Ben, for being so keen to take part in my series and for showing us your amazing work! You can see more of Ben's beautiful work on www.benjaminyoud.com.

If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different photographer each month!

Welcome to My Blog

I write one post a week about my experiences working as a freelancer in the creative industries. If you are interested in the business of photography, fashion or the work of creatives in general, or if you just like my take on life, subscribe and start receiving my weekly updates in your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and I will only use your email to send you the weekly newsletter.